Oops, a new quilt project

I shared this photo in my recent craft room update and said I’d fallen for the Colour Study quilt a long which is being hosted by Alison Glass - and I’m still smitten. I briefly tried to resist a new project, but sometimes the pull is just too strong.

I’m most definitely in, even though I wasn’t planning to start any more quilt projects. But I’ve done a deal with myself - and that’s to also have a push on completing the mystery block of the month quilt which has been languishing in my craft room for a good few months, while I silently sulked about not having enough of the most perfect background fabric!

But anyway, I’m over the silent sulking and will be using the fabric I’d planned to use all along on the back. The quilt sandwich is together, and it’s been basted so it’s ready for quilting - and I’ve even had a reset of my craft room to make as much space as I can around my machine.

But this post isn’t about that - and at the time of writing, while I’ve chosen fabrics for the quilt and the first few blocks, I’ve held off even cutting out those blocks, but I know it won’t be long before I start, so let’s take a look at what I’ll be up to.

The majority of the material I’m using for this quilt is from my stash. I am planning to use quite a few from the Gothic Garden fat quarter bundle I shared before, but it won’t be a halloween only fabric quilt. The guide suggesting puling a good range of colours from reds, yellows, oranges, blues, greens and purples to get started and I’ve done that. Though as part of that I’ve realised I don’t tend to go for reds or purples, which isn’t that much of a surprise to me really.

I’ve also decided to set my blocks against a dark background, and to use a selection of fabrics for that too. So with using patterns and a dark background my finished quilt will look quite different to the images I’ve shared - though there is a dark background option in the weekly instructions - and I hope I can pull it off.

I’ve even found an old notebook with enough space to help me work through the blocks, their colours and the substitutions I make. I last used the notebook back in 2015, when it had a travel planning purpose - now my evil plans are most definitely fabric themed!

I realised when I pulled these fabrics off the shelves that I very much like bright colours, and so along with the dark background I’m already calling this my ‘brights and dark’ quilt. I’ll be sharing updates as I go, though probably just once a month rather than each block - there’s twenty five of them which are released weekly, and the filler blocks, so that would be a lot of blog posts!

I’m excited to finally get started with the first few blocks - and to share how I get on, and hopefully next Spring I’ll have another quilt top complete.

Modern Quilts by Mandy Munroe

It’s been a while since I’ve shared some quilts from this year’s Newark Quilt Show, so today I’ve got some brightly coloured modern designs to share. The quilts here are all made by Mandy Munroe for a variety of modern quilting magazines over the past twelve years or so, and it was great to see them all together. Mandy says this is just a small selection of her quilts, and I’d love to see them all, but for now I’m happy just seeing, and sharing, these - I hope you enjoy them too.

, MANDY MUNROE

The show notes also said that it took Mandy a while to get used to designing quilts six months ahead of publication, so making winter quilts in summer and vice versa, but with access to top-secret fabric prints pre-release must have been thrilling, even if they couldn’t be shared widely, just yet.

I love the colours in the next two square based quilts, but I’m under no illusion to the amount of work in either of these. The Happy Squares quilt below brings ‘doodles in [Mandy’s] notebook were brought to life’ against the colourful squared backgrounds. I’m not sure my doodles could be a quilt, or even if they’d ever be this structured!

HAPPY SQUARES, MANDY MUNROE

CHEQUERBOARD, MANDY MUNROE

And what’s better than a chequerboard - well a chequerboard within a chequerboard of course! This quilt was made from scraps, and the smaller chequerboards meant that using every small scrap was possible.

BUCKLE UP, MANDY MUNROE

Mandy notes that for the Buckle Up quilt above she’d had the bold repeat pattern in her notebook for a while, and with this fabric she ‘went large!’ - I like it, and I like how the shapes make your eyes keep moving over the design.

This next one appeals for the colours, and is an experimentation of different colour combinations pieced into square blocks, and I can see what Mandy means when she says the finished quilt looks like a summer garden with umbrellas (from above).

AL FRESCO SAMPLER, MANDY MUNROE

The brief for this quilt was colours of the Kasbah, and the design is based on a motif that Mandy saw everywhere in Marrakesh. It’s great isn’t it, and I love how the bright colours pop against the neutral background.

KASBAH STAR, MANDY MUNROE

Now this one is very clever, and uses a bundle of Dear Stella Intermix basics which clearly I now need to check out! The bold prints were used on the triangles and the paler prints used to create streaks across the sky - I’m definitely a little bit in love with this one.

INTERSTELLA, MANDY MUNROE

What also struck me though was not every quilt needed to be quite so detailed. These next two take repeating shapes and are no less impactful for it. The one below was for a ‘Monochromatic with a pop’ issue and Mandy kept the design minimalistic and graphic.

MONOCHROMATIC, MANDY MUNROE

STACK, MANDY MUNROE

The quilt above according to the show notes was ‘possibly inspired by containers loading at the docks’ - and now I can’t unsee that, it just goes to show that inspiration is everywhere if we take time to notice it.

WINDOWS AT KEW, MANDY MUNROE

This final quilt was inspired by the brickwork surrounding the windows at Kew Palace, and is based on a photo that Mandy took and then simplified. And if you let your imagination wander it’s perfectly possible to imagine the flowers reflected on the glass.

They’re all brilliant quilts, and I’d be hard pressed to choose a single favourite from them, but what about you - is there one that speaks, or sings to you?

A quilty update - September 2026

Earlier in the year I set out my quilt plans for 2026, and to be honest it seems like yesterday since my update in June, but another three months have gone by and so here I am checking in with my next quilty update.

So how am I doing?

1. The teal flying geese

I have news. I have started this one, finally.

As this will be for a king size bed I decided to go with the larger size of flying geese, as I thought that too many small geese might send me seriously quackers. The fabrics are great, and although I had a minor cutting hiccup for the first few blocks, I’ve got around that with an extra seam which I’m ok with. The second cutting session went a lot more to plan and I’ve already got a steadily growing pile of blocks of four geese.

SOME OF THE ALREADY COMPLETED FLYING GEESE BLOCKS

THERE’S MORE IN PROGRESS, WAITING TO BE SEWN TOGETHER

AND MORE ALREADY CUT OUT, SO I REALLY HAVE NO EXCUSE!

I know I will need a fair few more - I haven’t counted exactly how many yet - but this project is go (maybe not go, go, go just yet - but go is good!)

2. The jeans and pyjamas

3. My floral fancy

The update for these two is there is no update, their time will come I’m sure.

4. My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

The small, slow-burn progress continues. I’ve started to move beyond the already constructed blue and green shapes and have started to build larger blocks around the vintage tablecloth diamonds. It’s going to look great, but it is still a project that you mustn’t hold your breath for!

ATTACHING FOUR OF THE BLOCKS WITH A VINTAGE TABLECLOTH DIAMOND

THE FIRST OF THE LARGER BLOCK CONSTRUCTS

5. Scrappy houses charity quilts

More news here, with villages 2 & 3 also now complete. Each of these quilts is different, which is amazing really as there are many common fabrics between them. They continue to be a joy to sew - as it’s a great way to experiment with patterns and colours, and I don’t think I’ve put together a house which I completely dislike yet.

VILLAGE QUILTS 2 & 3

6. Wonderland meets Moda

7. Word Star

Again, there is no update on these.

A bonus quilty update

While I missed the annual Project Linus sewing day that my patchwork group hold, I was able to donate the pile of nine quilts that have been amassing in the corner of my craft room, including all of the village quilts I’ve made so far, and the quilt that mum made which I shared in my last update.

They were very pleased to receive this stack of nine quilts, and it’s great to see that corner of my craft room again, even if it is only for a short time until more charity quilts fill that space!

So there has been quilty progress against my long list, and none of it has been a chore - I just need to work out how to do more with my sewing time, and to make time for more sewing time, though with the winter months approaching I think that that will become easier.